Elon Musk’s company says it wants to share the customer from the stabilization of its costs, but the inadequacy of sales and the arrival of a new competition suggests a global cure of tariff modesty.
by Jean-Michel Normand
Playing yo-yo with its prices is second nature at Tesla which, in the past, has regularly and without readjusted notice the prices of its catalog. While for almost two years the movement has been systematically increasing, it is a sudden de -escalation that the American manufacturer announces, Friday, January 13.
La Model 3, whose entry -level had climbed 43,800 euros, mid -201, to 53,490 euros, late 2022 -almost 10,000 euros of inflation -is now accessible from 44,990 euros . As for the SUV Model Y, it loses 3,000 euros and is displayed from 46,990 euros. This commercial gesture holds, explains the manufacturer of Austin (Texas), to a “stabilization of inflation of certain costs” (raw materials, logistics) and the realization of productivity gains in its factories.
The time has come, he said, to “transfer” these good news to the customer. In France, the least expensive Tesla models will therefore be able to benefit from the ecological bonus, awarded below a purchase price of 47,000 euros and the amount of which was reduced, in 2023, from 6,000 to 5,000 euros.
Disturbances area
The context proper to the American brand suggests other explanations for this momentum of generosity. Despite the very positive results of the year 2022, which saw its sales jump 40 % to 1.31 million cars, the world number one of the electric car crosses an area of disturbances. And not only because of the recurring controversies around his boss, Elon Musk.
Besides Tesla assured that he could achieve growth of 50 %, the appearance of certain signs, such as the allocation of discounts in China, but also the persistent difference between production, sustained, and less dynamic sales, have Given some doubts about the brand’s performance.
Tesla, long hegemonic on the electric car market, must also adapt to the found aggressiveness of traditional manufacturers who, from Ford to Renault via Volkswagen, flesh out their ranges with new, more efficient models. Without losing sight of the Chinese brands, in particular Byd, which are progressing very strongly on their internal market and have the ambition to challenge Tesla in Europe, then in the United States.
These opposite winds argue for a treatment – perhaps temporary – of pricing modesty, also likely to appease controversies born around the brand (among buyers, the proportion of sympathizers democrats has greatly retreated in recent months, according to a study). And, above all, initiate the rise in the stock market course, halved in 2022.